Most problems at work are ordinary ones — something is late, unclear, or keeps going wrong. You don’t need to be senior to solve them. You need to slow down, look at what’s actually happening, and check your thinking with other people.
What critical thinking means here
Critical thinking is simply thinking carefully before you act:
- Separate fact from assumption. What do you actually know, and what are you guessing?
- Look for the cause, not just the symptom. Fixing a symptom means doing it again next month.
- Consider more than one option before you settle on an answer.
- Check your thinking with someone else — you will always have a blind spot.
- Base the decision on evidence, not on who spoke loudest or what you did last time.
Why it matters
| Level | Why critical thinking matters |
|---|---|
| For Nexus | Fewer repeated mistakes, less rework, better decisions, and standards we can defend to customers and regulators. |
| For the community and our customers | Services that work as promised, and problems that get fixed properly rather than passed on. |
| For you | You make better calls in your own role, you’re trusted with more, and you can explain why you did something. |
The basic process
- Understand the problem. What is happening, to whom, since when, how often.
- Gather the facts. Ask people who know. Check records, not memory.
- Find the cause. Use one of the techniques below.
- Generate options. More than one — the first idea is rarely the best.
- Choose and recommend. Weigh the options, then take it to whoever decides.
- Do it, then check it worked. See the PDCA cycle.
Four basic techniques
Pick the one that suits the problem. Most people use two or three together.
1. Five Whys
Ask “why?” about five times, following the answer down until you reach a cause you can actually do something about.
The pack was late. Why? The Care figures arrived Friday. Why? They were asked for on Thursday. Why? There’s no set date to request them. Why? Nobody agreed one when the pack changed.
Best for: a single, fairly clear problem with one main cause. Watch out for: stopping at the first person you can blame. Keep going to the process.
2. Cause and effect (fishbone)
Write the problem on the right, then group the possible causes under headings — People, Process, Information, Equipment. It shows you everything contributing, not just the obvious one.
Best for: a problem with several causes at once. Watch out for: filling it with guesses. Mark which causes you’ve actually confirmed.
3. Brainstorming
Get two or three people together and generate as many options as you can without judging them. Sort them afterwards. Accepted practice at Nexus: everyone contributes, no idea is dismissed while you’re still generating, and you write them all down.
Best for: finding options once you know the cause. Watch out for: one person dominating, or quietly settling on the first suggestion.
4. Pros and cons
Take the two or three realistic options and list what’s good and bad about each — effort, cost, time, who it affects, what could go wrong. Then say which one you recommend and why.
Best for: choosing between options and explaining the choice to your supervisor. Watch out for: listing pros and cons but never actually making the call.
What commonly blocks it
- Jumping to a solution before you understand the cause.
- Assuming instead of asking — see asking effective questions.
- Only asking one person, so you get one version of the story.
- Not enough information, or information that sits in someone’s head and never gets written down.
- Blaming a person rather than looking at the process around them.
- Rushing it because of a deadline — which is usually what created the problem.
- Staying quiet because you’re new, or it feels like someone else’s area.
- Fixing the symptom so it comes back next month.
If you hit one of these, name it. Saying “I think we’re jumping ahead — can we check the cause first?” is a completely normal thing to say in a Nexus meeting.
Write it down
Record what you found, what you tried and what you decided — see document control for naming and where to save it. Use the problem-solving record in the templates library. If your recommendation needs sign-off, follow the approval procedure.
Then ask how it went
Once you’ve worked something through, ask your supervisor and the people you consulted what they thought of your questions and your approach. It’s the fastest way to get better at this.